Juri Misaki, the original manga artist for nostalgic romance series Clannad and Key illustrator ZEN have offered their praise for the success of Clannad’s Kickstarter which has recently acquired all 3 of its stretch goals while accruing over $410,000 in contributions – a feat that truly demonstrates Clannad’s immense global popularity.

For those unfamiliar, the stretch goals for the Kickstarter were HD assets at $200,000, a release of the Clannad side-stories “Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de” on PC for $320,000 and the production of an original Clannad anthology manga at $380,000 which will incorporate the talents of several Japanese illustrators.

In case the pirates are too young to remember, games have to have the potential to make profit in certain regions to be even created in many cases. It’s why we weren’t given so many good games in the 90s.

Things have changed a bit, but potential profit must be had for larger endeavors. Using things like Clannad localization and Sakura Angels (even if it may not be one of the higher end) are the methods we can use to bring Visual Novels over with the quality they deserve. Just like how the fansubbing community overstepped its bounds around mid 2000s and began eating into profits and put the industry in more danger than 5 years before when they helped anime grow the fanbase. Now we have simulcasts.

Sooner or later we have to contribute monetarily in some form or shit doesn’t get made, simple as that.

If the point is to support the author, KEY studio then why cant they just buy directly from the Key and by pass the US license holder with all the expenses in translating, voice action, distrobution…etc? Dont tell me that after all these cost, KEY share of money is still bigger than their japan version.

On the other note, fansubbing community overstep their boundary? Sorry but without the fansubbing japanese anime/manga/game subculture will never ever be this big today. Manga/anime will only be regarded as kiddes entertainment with only bleach/naruto. I (and most people) would never start read/watch anything in a language i dont understand even when my closest friend recommend me it.

Do you think people would cosplay a who know character from a manga/anime if they didnt know it through fansub? Do you think there would be anime festival where Japan artists, companies are presented in Singapore, HongKong, US if there were only bleach/naruto/one piece available

Because of fansubbing community japan subcultre spreads and people bought merchandise and DVD directly from japan, travel to japan, spread the words about japan. They themselves created a market for japan out of f-ing nowhere while costing the japan literally nothing (you cant lose profit of what you dont sell).

and what do they get? DMCA notice

“This is the same issue as with all other “pirated” Japanese media. Works are never translated, fans take up the mantle and translate it themselves, creating a market, then the owner of the Japanese media licenses it and tries to crack down on the previously freely (if niche) available content.”

Lemme clarify on your first paragraph. Yes, if as a fan of the CLANNAD VN, your intention is to support Key and the authors directly, then yes, buying directly from Key would be ideal as you would bypass the costs of english translation and worldwide distro. I don’t know pure numbers for this obviously, but the approach Key is taking towards this is very hands off in the sense that they are not committing any large resources towards this Kickstarter. Only the stretch goals that require Key staff members to product content exclusive for the KS or any supplemental support. Wallscrolls, some custom shikishi’s and drawings here and there? Compared to their newest Anime project with PA Works, this stuff is a drop in the bucket.

Sekai Project has a minimum guarantee to meet, hence the license costs being the largest part and they handle the brunt of the hardwork. If by some chance, SP screws up and does not deliver, there is no skin off Key’s back.
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Ignore the people and white knights that point fingers at fansubbers and pirates, there is already enough overwhelming evidence and peer-reviewed research done on the topic of piracy and digital file sharing to prove that piracy doesn’t effect sales. Anyone with access to the internet can just Google it. It only hurts rentals. And the rental business model has already gone out the window YEARS ago. And it isn’t just anime, but Hollywood content as well.

The main thing to take into consideration is that anime and its subdivisions (visual novels, games, manga etc) are produced for the Japanese market. Therefore the success of these products is relative to how well they sell within Japan while global markets only bolster sales. This is due to the mainstream status of these media within Japan and relatively underground following across the world.

That said I was really surprised with just how successful the official Clannad Kickstarter funding was. With the increasing popularity of anime and its sub-genres its fathomable that foreign markets could provide significant income to these products in the near future. The implications being more localizations, which provides content that may have been previously unavailable, at lower prices when compared with standard importing expenses.

Currently, the most significant challenge to accomplishing this is overcoming tendency within the community to utilize torrents and unofficial streaming services. The key lies in providing incentives to purchasing localized content through official channels so Japanese companies can see more return on their investments. Perhaps offering exclusive deals, content or merchandise may be one strategy.

That is not to say that piracy is not beneficial to sales, as it creates interest and in many cases may lead to purchases of imported merchandise that otherwise wouldn’t have been made. But that’s a entirely different discussion.

>> The key lies in providing incentives
>> to purchasing localized content
>> through official channel

If they got their act together and provided nice literal translations with certain Japanese words untouched and suffixes left alone and the Japanese name order left alone maybe I could consider buying localized content again. Then again, I don’t want a localization, I want a translation. Big difference.

It doesn’t feel too surprising with how successful the official Clannad Kickstarter is. They only have 4,544 backers. Larger conventions in North American easily have attendance rates in the tens of thousands. Just get a small portion of anime fans that like VNs (which there are definitely some) to donate, plus all other fans throughout the US and foreign fans, and you’re pretty much set. If the Kickstarter was stuck to ONLY serving and shipping to those in America, it would still be a success, just not a $410,000 success.